Question

In a tug of war one team gives way to the other what work is being done and by whom

Answer 1

Work done is the resultant of the 2 forces applied by the teams. That means it is the difference between the forces of the 2 teams (sinc e they are both horizondal forces vector addition can be done easily).
Now consider the winnig team is stationary and the losing team is slowly being pulled towards them. We know work=force×displacement.
let w1 be the work done by the winning team and w2 be the work done by the losing team.
So the losing team does not do any work i.e w2 =0 (as displacement is zero) and the work is only done by the winning team. So total work is w1.

now consider the case where the winning team moves back to pull the losing team towards them (this is the case in most of the situations). Work done by the losing team is negative since displacement is aganist the direction that the force they applied so,
w2=(-w2) and that applied by the winning team is positive w1=w1 so the total work done
W=w1-(-w2)=w1+w2
This is the total work done and is done by the winning team.

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